Episodios
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Oh, Jon Wertheim, 60 Minutes Correspondent, former Sports Illustrated Executive Editor, former(?) Tennis Channel Commentator, what have you done? Oh, you got caught on a hot mic during a live broadcast of the WTA Final saying something untoward about a top female player's looks? This sounds bad. Like, very bad.
But it raises questions about how we all navigate our private vs. public realms. We see people on TV and we talk about how they look. We mirror and we judge. We don't necessarily feel great about it, but it's human nature, probably.
In this episode, we dig into the Jon Wertheim suspension from the Tennis Channel, Jannik Sinner's latest unlucky turn with his ongoing doping investigation, and the exploding world of Bluesky! Follow us there, please!
As always tell your friends, rate this podcast, and send us feedback at https://www.perfectmatchpodcast.com/
You can also follow us on Bluesky at @tennis-dirt or @shellsteak, Threads at @perfectmatchpodcast, and Instagram at @perfectmatchpodcast
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With All Hallows' Eve upon us, we dig into our fears: specifically our greatest fears for the world of tennis (and one about the future of this country, ahem). Prepare yourself for the prospect of the servebots taking over tennis 😱 Novak Djokovic winning another slam 👻, Danielle Collins winning her first slam 😈, and Donald Trump becoming president again 🤡😳🤮.
Rather than follow us on socials and all that bliz blaz, go out and vote for Kamala Harris for President 🌊
God help us all.
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Note: as the tennis season winds down, so is our podcast season. We may be dropping in for a quick chat here and there, but we will be back in full force in the days leading up the Australian Open in January. See you on the other side!
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In light of Saudi Arabia's recent "Six Kings Slam" tournament for men and the WTA Finals in Riyadh coming up, along with Danielle Collin's announcement that she's not actually retiring (surprise, surprise!), we decided to rebroadcast an episode from April, in which we decry the Saudi influence in tennis and question Danielle Collins' good faith.
As always tell your friends, rate this podcast, and send us feedback at https://www.perfectmatchpodcast.com/
You can also follow us on Threads at @perfectmatchpodcast, Instagram at @perfectmatchpodcast, YouTube at @PerfectMatchPodcast and X at @perfectmatchq.
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In which we address The Handshake: that perfunctory, sometimes awkward moment at the net when the players pretend to be aligned on the outcome of the match. You win, you are overcome by joy, you feign empathy with your opponent. Or sometimes, you don't!
Today, we will explore some of the lowlights: the sarcastic digs, the bitchy rejoinders and the handshakes that didn’t happen – and why what happens at the net matters so much.
As always tell your friends, rate this podcast, and send us feedback at https://www.perfectmatchpodcast.com/
You can also follow us on Threads at @perfectmatchpodcast, Instagram at @perfectmatchpodcast, YouTube at @PerfectMatchPodcast and X at @perfectmatchq.
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This time we consider the Tennis Grunt: the sometimes loud (and often unpleasant) noises that male and female players make when hitting the ball. The Grunt is much more problematized on the women's side than on the men's (and Michele has THOUGHTS about this), but it can't be denied that players make more noise than they used to!
We go into the history of the Grunt, it's appearance in an old Curb Your Enthusiasm episode, and a recent integration into the notification system in the "gay dating app" Grindr.
Today we're Serving Grunt and we're glad you're hear for it (ahem, sorry).
As always tell your friends, rate this podcast, and send us feedback at https://www.perfectmatchpodcast.com/
You can also follow us on Threads at @perfectmatchpodcast, Instagram at @perfectmatchpodcast, YouTube at @PerfectMatchPodcast and X at @perfectmatchq.
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This time we are very happy to welcome Scott Lazer, the director of the beautiful short film “Ball People”, about the young and not-so-young people who tried out for the 2022 US Open Ball Crew. Scott is an award-winning filmmaker and creative director who has directed multiple documentaries, dramas and commissions, including “West by God” which won a Special Jury Award in 2022 at SXSW, and “Commute” which won Best of the Year at the 2021 Vimeo Festival & Awards.
We talk about "ball kids" generally, the unique inclusion of adults in the Ball Crew at the US Open, Scott's winding journey making "Ball People", and a bit of tennis in general.
As always tell your friends, rate this podcast, and send us feedback at https://www.perfectmatchpodcast.com/
You can also follow us on Threads at @perfectmatchpodcast, Instagram at @perfectmatchpodcast, YouTube at @PerfectMatchPodcast and X at @perfectmatchq.
Note: this episode was recorded prior to the disastrous impact of Hurricane Helene on North Carolina and surrounding areas. Our hearts go out to Scott and his people who are suffering there now. You can donate to relief efforts by going to the Red Cross' Hurricane Helene Relief Fund or a charity of your choice.
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Although we may seem like the "Perfect Match", there is a question mark in the name of this podcast. This time we dive into...OUR RELATIONSHIP, specifically around competition between us in tennis and cards. As usual, Michele comes off as very reasonable, measured and self-assured, and Bryan...struggles a bit.
Tell us who is right and who is wrong at https://www.perfectmatchpodcast.com/
As always, tell your friends, rate the podcast in your app, and follow us on socials.
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This week we are thrilled to have on Caitlin Thompson. She is a journalist, podcaster, blogger, editor and the founder of Racquet Magazine. Racquet is a quarterly magazine that celebrates the art, ideas, style and culture that surround tennis. It combines high design and photography with thoughtful essays and is a beacon of tennis print journalism.
We had a bunch of questions for Caitlin, but the conversation became more interesting than the questions. We ended up weaving through "who is Andre Agassi to us now?", "why getting on fights on the internet is maybe bad", "how will tennis fix itself (or will it)?", and a million other things.
You can buy Racquet Magazine at select retailers and online at: https://shop.racquetmag.com/collections/issues
As always tell your friends and leave a review! 😙
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With the US Open now behind us, we reflect on a few of the American players who made deep runs, not about their tennis but rather a detail that isn't discussed much in the tennis commentariat: their exorbitant wealth. We break down the family money of Jessie Pegula, Emma Navarro and Taylor Fritz as well as some of the utterly clueless things they've said about their wealth. It's exasperating!
Also, we recount a tennis-related argument Bryan recently got into with a 70-something woman in a pub (note: she came at me!), and we throw a bit of hate over to Nick Kyrgios, who recently did something gross and sexist AGAIN.
Follow us on socials, tell your tennis friends and leave us feedback at https://www.perfectmatchpodcast.com/
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On this bonus episode, we continue examining the awesome legacy of Billie Jean King. This portion of the story looks at her complicated coming out story, involving an affair with her assistant, a palimony lawsuit, and ultimately the acceptance of openly gay players in professional tennis.
As always, follow us on socials, rate us in your podcast app, tell your friends (!), and send us feedback at https://www.perfectmatchpodcast.com/
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As the US Open kicks off at the Billie Jean King Tennis Center in Queens, NY, we discuss the Billie Jean King story. From her role in founding the first professional tennis tour for women, to the founding of the Women's Tennis Association and beyond, King has established herself as the Godmother of Tennis. To this day, she towers over the sport and sets the tone for debate on various issues affecting the sport.
As always, follow us on socials and leave us feedback at https://www.perfectmatchpodcast.com/
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The US Open is almost upon us, and we frequently hear from people who are thinking of going but don't know when to go or what kind of tickets to buy. So we set out to answer these questions and discuss pretty much everything else you may need to know about attending the Tournament. We talk tickets, transportation, stadia, events, food, drink and rules of the event (you technically can't bring that thermos of Bloody Marys, but...).
Since the Open can be a take-out-a-second-mortgage investment, we focus on the free and the cheap. It is, in fact, possible to have a lovely day at Billie Jean King Tennis Center without having to sell a kidney.
As always, follow us on the socials and leave us feedback at https://www.perfectmatchpodcast.com/
See you at the Open!
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Bonjour from Montreal! Michele and Bryan ate and drank their way through a visit to the this delightful city for the Banque Nationale Open tennis tournament, which featured the men this year. These poor players had to put up with endless rain delays resulting in a chaotic schedule, meaning a number of players had to play two full matches the same day. Quel drame!
Come with us as we explore the city, eat (and eat and eat), ponder the idiosyncrasies of our "old school" AirBnB, and sneak stuff into the Tournament.
Montreal is a sublime city, as European as any this side of the pond, and just an hour plane ride from New York City. Five stars, no notes.
As always, follow us on socials and leave us feedback at https://www.perfectmatchpodcast.com/
Allez-hop!
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With the tennis now complete at the Olympics, we’ve been spending some time investigating a strange, sometimes embarrassing phenomenon in the world of tennis: the players’ pet music projects. Some of these players take their music very seriously, some not so much. None of these releases (with the possible exception of an Argentinian player's) can be considered legitimate music. The quality varies from, say, your co-worker’s SoundCloud page to Euro Vision stylings to promotional sports rap to, just, what the fuck were they thinking?
We take a ride on the streaming platforms and offer the best and worst of this subgenre, from Shapo to Serena and beyond.
As always, follow us on the socials, rate us in your podcast app and send feedback at https://perfectmatchpodcast.com
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As the Olympics come to a close, the USA is fading in the tennis category...and not without some Real Housewives-style drama! While it is guaranteed that the US will take home one medal in Men's Doubles Tennis, a couple of the non-medal competitors decided to burn the place down on the way out the door. Both Danielle Collins and Emma Navarro had (unfortunate) choice words for their opponents after they lost, for reasons only they can know. It was pretty tacky!
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With the Olympics underway with all of its nationalist fervor, we find ourselves rooting for players from around the world, regardless of which country they represent. We started thinking about why we like some players over others. It's highly subjective, sometimes irrational and (admittedly) often based on looks.
Today we run through a wide swath of tennis players competing in the Singles category and give each one a Yea, Nay or Meh (with buzzer sound effects of course). As we try to explain why we feel the way we do, it gets a bit uncomfortable!
Please rate this podcast in your app, follow us on socials, and send us feedback at https://perfectmatchpodcast.com
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The Tennis Channel shows a lot of ads: ads that are cheap, crass and representative of the dark reality of American life. We dissect a few lowlights in the genre, from a "poop shy" woman who discovers direct to consumer supplements to a recently clear-skinned dad horrifying his teenage daughter in his brand new Speedo! These ads deliver the goods..and the cringe.
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As part of our Social Justice Series, we take a deep dive into the life and pro tennis career of Renée Richards, a trans woman who successfully sued the US Open in the 1970s for the right to play on the women's side. We will also discuss current takes on trans athletes in tennis (some better than others!) from several tennis luminaries.
For background, we watched the excellent ESPN documentary "Renée" (part of their "30 for 30" series, available on ESPN+), as well as the better-than-it-needed-to-be 1980s TV biopic "Second Serve", starring Vanessa Redgrave as both the pre and post-transition Renée (available for free on YouTube). We suggest watching either or both if you want to take a deep dive yourself.
As always, follow us on the socials, rate this podcast in your app, and tell your friends!
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In this Midweek Mini, we talk about the ESPN+ series "In the Arena: Serena Williams". Say that 10 times fast! The first two episodes that are available now are an interesting look at the early careers of both Serena and Venus Williams. It includes some excellent rare footage of them playing in the storied Compton public courts, as well as some great moments of them playing on the pro circuit, mostly against one another.
We talk about the weird consensus throughout most of their careers that their matches were kind of boring and possibly fixed. What were people thinking?
As always, follow us on Threads, X, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok, and stream all of our episodes at https://perfectmatchpodcast.com
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In which we discuss Serena Williams calling out Harrison Butker, Stefanos Tsitsipas' new controlling/abusive video, and the Wimbledon Champions. Barbora Krejčíková's unexpected win and Carlos Alcaraz' much needed defeat of aggrieved weirdo Novak Djokovic. We weigh in on whether it's okay for a player to mimic sad violin playing at the crowd (after he's won the match!) and then gaslight everyone by saying he did it for his adorable daughter. Hard to say!
As always, follow us on Threads, X/Twitter, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube! Whatever brainrot you prefer.
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